Neko Rabu
by Novoux
Summary: The worst thing about the situation he found himself in was that the one responsible for this was so close and at the same time so far away. It's all Izaya's fault. Shizaya and Izuo; for PendulumDeath. Companion fic to this is "Inu Rabu" on AO3. Rated for sexual themes.


The red sun of Japan has never been known to rise in the west.

Not until today, not through the many wars and eras it has seen, the red sun has never faltered in rising and setting as the world turns on and on. So not even the worst of tragedies that have taken Japan and shaken its entire foundation to the ground would be capable of turning everything normal and turning it inside-out.

Except for today, where Shizuo wakes up believing the sun does happen to rise in the west. Well, convinced even more when he wakes up to pillows nearly engulfing him, covering everywhere he can look except up. Which prompts a quick shake out of bed, rolling onto the floor and hitting his head against his nightstand which leaves a lump worthy of bruising on the back of his head. All of this is normal for mornings where he forgets what he's done the night before (strangely never remembering the act of drinking) and manages to put himself in some strange situation.

It gets even stranger, when he falls on the floor and it _squeaks_ under his weight and he's completely sure that his apartment is cheap, but not this cheap. He can pardon the awkward placement of a lot of pillows and blankets on his bed, but when he sits up with one hand on his head and another balancing him, another soft squeak comes from beneath him. Moving his hand behind his back he searches blindly, looking for the source of the noise and his hand collides with something soft. Upon further inspection he brings the soft thing from behind him and holds it up, not sure of what he's seeing.

The blue fur on the thing doesn't make it any less confusing, holding up some creature that looks vaguely like a fuzzy blue monster. And when he squeezes the thing, not sure of regarding it to what he thinks it is, it _squeaks_ in his fingers and it sounds like a toy. A _dog_ toy, nonetheless, just when this day has already started on the wrong side of a bed that doesn't feel like or smell like his. The smell in the room is much stronger, a musky kind of smell that stings into his nose and smells like a dog has been through his room and all of his stuff.

Except it doesn't make _any_ sense because he doesn't drink, doesn't _have_ a dog, and his bed is a complete mess of blankets and pillows that don't look the least bit familiar to him. And the room he's in looks exactly like his apartment, but he keeps thinking he sees differences no matter the plain essentials that sit in his room. The dresser, the lamp, _everything_ is exactly how it's supposed to be—so why is is so different?

One thought crosses his mind as he stands up, a growl building in his throat when he drops the dog toy with disgust, kicking it across the room. That damn _flea_ has got to be the one messing with him, because nothing has its stench all over something as weird as this like Izaya does. And he'll have to go show the bastard himself why he should keep his stinking ass out of Ikebukuro, and _kill_ him until he gets the hint to go drown in Tokyo Bay. His fists tremble with the thought, lips settling into a snarl as he turns to look for any more abnormalities, thinking of his mantra _kill kill kill_ when his head's cloudy and he can't think straight, can't remember any reason _why_ his room is so different and—

— _Shit._

The electronic clock on his nightstand has numbers that stick to the side of his brain, burning into his eyes when he finally starts to notice he's thirty minutes _late_ and there's no time to panic over this weird shit or shitty fleas when he has to get to work. Not only that, but explain to Tom why he's late and most likely rant the entire time about how he just knows Izaya is messing with him, with the dog toy and the—maybe it's best to not mention that.

Shizuo stumbles off the floor, ripping open his closet and grabbing a bartender suit off one of the hangers, tugging it on ( _gently,_ he reminds himself when he knows that this is a _gift_ ) in record time while skipping other routine things like having breakfast or making sure his hair isn't a mess. He knows he'll be hungry later, but he can just buy something at lunch after apologizing to Tom and going to beat up the shitty flea.

He doesn't waste anymore time, already too late and thinking of how he's going to manage yet another shitty day when he starts into a jog, not wanting to keep Tom waiting for any longer and curses under his breath as he moves, thinking of all the ways to kill the flea and make him pay for messing with him _again._

Yet as he moves down the streets by memory to the meet up with Tom, he doesn't notice anything else off. No fluffy jackets or cackling laughter around, but he does notice something peculiar—looks like more dogs and cats out, that's all—with the amount of animal's he seeing every now and then. Blaming it on either the flea or his own groggy memory, he doesn't try to look any closer just 'cause he knows he'll see things that aren't worth dealing with. Even the thought of it starts to make his blood heat up into a snapping boil.

"Shizuo!" Tom greets, raising a hand to wave him over. Shizuo obediently follows, thinking of an apology for his lateness but the second he stops, seeing a strange set of ears standing alert on the top of Tom's head, sticking out of his dreadlocks with brown tufts of _fur._ Before he has any breath of hair not sticking to his tongue and swallowing suspiciously the same way a choke comes from him, Tom cocks his head to the side. "What happened to your ears?"

Okay, this isn't happening. Maybe—Maybe it's just a joke. Right? But when he sees a flash of a dog tail not too far off, he turns his head and he looks—thinking this is just a prank and Tom still has it in him—except it's not, going by the woman with the set of animal ears on top of her head with a dog's tail swishing behind her. And then there are more dog tails behind _people,_ some with long sleek ones that look like they belong to cats and he sees feathers on someone, bright plumage and this has got to be some sort of joke.

"Wh-What!?" Shizuo shakes his head, brow furrowing in total utter confusion because these people look like animals, walking and talking and looking like normal people, except they have feathers, tails, and ears on top of their head and Tom is looking at him like _he's_ the crazy one. "What the hell is going on? Why are they wearing that shit?" He gets a dirty look from a little girl in a high school uniform, a long black tail swishing behind her with cat's ears of the same color flattening against her head.

"Shizuo," Tom steps forward and Shizuo manages to step back, taking in the sight of his senpai and wondering what exactly Izaya put in his coffee last night. Damn flea bastard—! "Look, just follow me. I don't know what's going on either, just tell me what's going on after we get to a shop." Tom starts, pointing at the top of his head where his ears are that are definitely not on Shizuo's head. In his confusion he wants to argue, thinking this is already insane and he's probably on some weird drug Izaya is using to mess with him, even if the flea has never gotten this stupid.

Along the way to a convenience store Tom mentions, Shizuo can't help but walk a little slower and notice the people around him, all of them in some form of one animal or another and even if he tries not to stare, he notices Tom's bushy tail that doesn't exactly look like a dog's. At one point he convinces himself he's not awake, he's still very much asleep and the damn louse could be whispering this shit into his ear just to make him believe it.

One way or another, that flea bastard is going to pay for this.

"Here, try this on," Tom picks a beanie off a hanger, handing to Shizuo who pulls it over his head, questioning the look from Tom he gets. It feels the exact same, kind of alienating even if his senpai isn't trying to be rude—all the other people who have seen him today gave him this surprised look, some turning away or scowling at him in disgust as if he's the freak. Definitely has to be the work of a smarmy bastard who's probably laughing at him right now.

Tom brings him back from a more murderous frame of mind, tugging one side of the beanie down. "You have to wear this for a while, since you'll attract some unwanted attention if you don't." Shizuo nods, slowly, because this information is refusing to go into his brain and he's sure that he's going to wake up at some point. It can't go on forever, right? "So, you want to tell me what's going on? Where's your tail, too? And what's been with you? You smell different, too." So he's not dreaming, because he can feel the blood coming from his palms as Tom pays for the hat and tugs off the price tag. Though when Tom mentions it he's sure he's not just feeling a breeze in the seat of his pants, definitely when one hand goes behind and brushes against a noticeable _hole_ where he can feel his shirt tucked in.

"I smell different?" Shizuo asks, stumbling over words and curses and trying to wake up from this damn dream of his because it's not funny at all. "What the hell is going on? I woke up late this morning, found weird stuff in my room—a dog toy, and I don't even have a dog. And why are you wearing those costume things?" He tries to touch an ear on top of Tom's head, equal parts mortified and confused when it twitches beneath his fingers. Tom's look matches the expression, confused and concerned, even though Shizuo knows he's not crazy like everyone else is.

"You're not Shizuo," Tom says, stepping outside of the convenience store and back where there are people with animal ears and tails. "You don't smell like him, you don't look like him, but you certainly act like and look like him."

"What are you saying?" Shizuo grits his teeth, just a bit because he's just as confused as his senpai is when he's not acting like this a joke. "Of course I'm Shizuo. Why are you wearing those ears and tail though?" Tom looks at him, shakes his head and sighs. Shizuo feels about ready to rip off the hat on his head because he feels like an idiot when these freaks keep staring at him and noticing that he's somehow different than them.

"Shizuo, everyone has these. You have ears that look like that," Tom points to a guy with yellow ears on top of his head, gold in color and a long tail with draping fur coming out behind him. "I'm a wolf. That's why my ears look different from a lot of other people. The main types you see are cat and dog families. Yourself included." And then he lifts a dreadlock, exposing a human ear. (And Shizuo is sure this day can't get any worse, with how weird all of this is and borderline insanity would be a good name for his thoughts.) "We have two sets of ears, but it's uncommon to see someone without them. Or a tail, which is why you've been getting a lot of stares." He pauses, taking in the utter confusion Shizuo expresses with an entirely blank face, staring at Tom while his thoughts take him elsewhere with bloody trails of murder and ripping that smirk off the informant's face.

"...I wonder if Izaya knows about what happened to you." And he completely misses the concern, the lack of animosity or annoyance, or really anything that comes with the application of that parasite's name.

Too bad Shizuo doesn't find out why, because his blood sizzles straight into a boil and he's got a name on his lips, consumed with too much rage to consider anything but killing the flea with his bare hands and he won't notice a thing when he barges into Izaya's office, splintering the door and its stupid lock just to _start._ No, the only thing that's on his mind is when he sees that confused look on the flea's face, the moment he barges in and has death written all over him to notice the sleek black ears and tail he sports.

For all he knows, the red sun of Japan may as well rise from the west.

All he sees is red and Izaya's name slips through his gritted teeth.

"Shizu-chan?"

* * *

 _Ehehehe~! **To read the companion fic to this, go to Archive of Our Own and read Inu Rabu by PendulumDeath. It features Shizuwan, the dog-eared version of Shizu-chan.**_

 _Ratings will go up, along with extra added kinky things, so stay tuned for next chapter._

 _Thank you for reading._


End file.
